...I'd think vigilence would be our best defense, not confidence, especially after the last loss.
And not sure about brushing past the concerted efforts by republicans, advantaged by the weight of the federal government to restrict or eliminate voting rights and registrations, with assertions about turnout.
The Trump Administration’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election
They include:
attempting to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems;
targeting or threatening to target election officials and others who keep elections free and fair;
supporting people who undermine election administration; and
retreating from the federal government’s role of protecting voters and the election process.
To be sure, previous elections were marred by rules and practices that hindered full participation. Restrictive voting laws (some of which had already been ruled unconstitutional), skewed maps, and bomb threats at polling places impeded the freedom to vote. Federal officials had an important role in countering disinformation and combatting racial discrimination. This federal protection for fair elections may no longer exist.
The president’s attempt to interfere with voting systems is not novel. In his first term, he tried to direct the attorney general, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to seize voting machines. He was unsuccessful. Yet now there are signs that the federal government may already be attempting to interfere with voting systems, beyond anything expressed in the executive order. A DHS official and an individual claiming to work for the administration have asked election officials in Colorado for access to their voting equipment.
Third, the order calls on the administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and DHS to obtain state voter files and other records kept by election officials, including voter list maintenance records. The DOJ has already requested voter lists from at least nine states, and at least two have provided them. Unredacted voter files and voter list maintenance records can contain sensitive private information about U.S. citizens. Other records may contain information that is subject to access controls for security reasons. Relatedly, the order mandates that states have access to federal citizenship data for voter list maintenance purposes; DHS recently overhauled and expanded the scope of its program for states to identify supposed noncitizens on the voter rolls.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/trump-administrations-campaign-undermine-next-election
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